101 



Question 3: Would it be effective to establish an independent steering committee to advise the 

 Under Secretary and Program Director concerning the operation of NURP? 



Such an advisory body could be very effective in helping to provide a sense of overall 

 focus and balance to the operation of NURP. I see such a group, and tiie advice that they would 

 offer, to be consistent with my comments made in answers to questions 1 and 2. The key to 

 success of such a group would be that they were independent and that they had the requisite 

 expertise. 



Question 4: What potential does the Jason Project have for education and undersea research? 



The Jason Project has demonstrated that the use of high technology equipment in the deep 

 sea to unravel its mysteries is a very effective methodology to engage the interest of young students 

 in science. Here at the Graduate School of Oceanography, we serve as a downlink site for the 

 Jason Project and I have had an opportunity to watch Jason Programs and to talk to many young 

 students who have participated in the program. The Jason Project has demonstrated that it is an 

 effective educational tool that can touch students throughout the country and around the world. 

 The Project now must put more time and resources into program content and development To 

 date, there has been too much emphasis on pretty pictures and video razzle-dazzle. The common 

 complaint I have heard from kids this year is that after 5-10 minutes they got bored because the 

 program never moved beyond imaging of the tube worms that populate the sides of hydrothermal 

 mounds. In short, the Project has demonsti^ted its great , great potential, but it is now time to 

 create an educational package that can take advantage of a captivated and interested audience. 



As an example of an ROV that is a superb imaging platform and that can carry out 

 manipulative and interactive tasks at great depths, Jason has great potential for deep-sea research. 



The Jason system has just joined the National Facility at Woods Hole Oceanographic and already 

 the academic community is proposing scientific programs of great merit that require the Jason 

 system. A deep water ROV asset like Jason greaUy expands our national capability to carry out 

 benchmark investigations in the abyss and nicely complements the ALVIN. Given the significance 

 of the scientific questions to be addressed in the deep sea and the global scale of the investigative 

 arena, we need a healthy and robust deep submergence capability that includes submersibles 

 (shallow and deep), ROVs and autonomous vehicles. PresenUy, our deep submergence effort is 

 fragmented between three agencies (NOAA, NSF, and ONR). This balkanization of the effort 

 results in precarious levels of funding, both for the National facility, as well as, for the scientific 

 programs that wish to use the deep submergence assets; a situation that all but insures that the U.S. 

 will relinquish its leadership role in deep submergence science to Japan and France. 



4/26/93 



